Monday, June 24, 2013

This week was CRAZY!
It was great, but I am just in shock with all the changes, miracles and
experience. It was super sad to say goodbye to Pécs, especially
considering all of the sad members and investigators. Other than that, it
has been a ride to remember and I am loving Szeged.

Tuesday-

This was a great day!
We had a hard time getting all the stuff together for transfers, Elder
Bennett and I, but it was successful and we made it a last great day. We
met with a great investigator and put her on a baptismal date and said goodbye
to the branch during family night that night. A lot of investigators came
and it was great. We then had one last district dinner. I already
miss Pécs!

Wednesday-

This day was just a
blur. I took a ridiculously early train to Budapest where I met my new
companion, Elder Bracken. We then headed to the mission home for my
"driving test." I don't think I have been more scared to drive
in my life. I had to drive in the busy city and I haven't sat behind the
wheel for more than a YEAR. I felt like a kid who just got his permit and
I entered in the driver's side door of our tiny Opel. It was successful
and we are still living, but I am going to have to get used to driving in the
tiny streets of Europe. We drive the car everywhere, but the hard part is
that the air conditioning is broken and it is 90+ degrees everyday. Oh
well, the mission only comes once right?

After that we headed
straight to some intense programs, went shopping and I started getting familiar
with the BEAUTIFUL city of Szeged.

Thursday-

Elder Bracken and I
started getting along great and all was good and dandy. To make the
situation better, we met with two new families on Thursday. It was so
nice to kneel with some families as the head of the house would pray.
Words can't describe the feeling of such an experience. We also had
a great English class with our goofy class of mainly "elderly" folk.
It was a good time. We then finished the day with some tracting and
things went! Apparently it wasn't just Pécs that has some magic effect on
tracting. I LOVE LIFE!

Friday-

Everyday seemed to be
getting better and better, this was especially true on Friday. We were
able to have programs on the hour, EVERY hour in an awesome nearby falú.
It was so awesome, especially concerning the fact that this was 2 more
families that were new. It went so well that we are heading back to their
houses for family home evening tonight. Things just seemed to catch on
fire was the referrals began to roll in. One of the best and most tiring
days of my mission!

Saturday-

We were able to meet
a wonderful woman I met in Pécs. She was a new convert in Pécs and she
just jumped for joy to know that I was in Szeged because she spends half of her
time here in Szeged due to her sick father. It was great talking to her
once again. We were able to talk and laugh and at the end, we taught her
sweet father. It was a great time. After that, we headed back to the city
center and set up a table with various church signs around it. We were
streeting and doing this right next to a natural fountain of mineral water.
It was so great and we met so many people just excited to meet with us.
We met a man in particular that truly impressed me.

His name is Charley
and he was a homeless man sitting next to the fountain. He was watching
us for a while until he gather the courage to come up to me. He simply
asked, "What are you doing here." I shared with him a message
about the Book of Mormon to which he responded, "How can I receive
one?" I promised him if he would come to church, a book was his.

To finish the
conversation, he smiled, complimented my Hungarian and began speaking English!
This random homeless man was once a successful teacher, but through a
series of events, life turned for the worse.

We exchanged smiles
and parted ways.

Sunday-

Charley came!
This random man from the street came to church with the biggest smile on
his face. To see him, along with 7 other investigators at church just
warmed my heart. Szeged is already awesome and we have nothing but big
plans for Charley and our great new families. We finished the day with
tracting and were able to teach a wonderful new girl. She is a sweetheart
and it was just great.

As for Elder Bracken,
he is a stud and things are going fantastic. Being a zone leader isn't
much different from your average missionary, but it is getting to know more
missionaries and helping them in their work. Life is just great on this
end and I am just smiling!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

I didn't forget to
write yesterday, no worries, it is just transfer week. We have our P-day
on Tuesday during transfer week. Interesting news, I am not staying in
Pécs! I got the last call I expected and am going zone leader in the
other side of the country in Szeged. It will be wonderful I am sure.

In other news, this
week was full of adventures and miracles. I will start from the
beginning!

P-Day

This day was VERY
funny. We decided to go to an acclaimed zip lining course. It
turned out to be a kids park, that was awkward. We still climbed a
mountain and went bobsledding anyway. We went down twice and it was a
ball, but then the strangest thing happened, hail the size of marbles started
falling from the sky! Elder Bennet and I, along with the other Elders
fled into the nearest form of shelter, a port-a-potty. It was great
spending P-day in a port-a-potty with 3 other guys. You have to love the
mission.

Week days

These were some of my
busiest and most hectic days of my mission! We were working super hard
for our investigators. We have a lot that are struggling in different
areas and we were doing all we could to help them in all ways possible.
It was hard and challenging, yet some of my favorite moments were held within
these few short days.

Sunday

As the weekend hit,
we realized that we needed to do something more to help our
investigators. So, we fasted. That day we had 3 great investigators
at church. I also had the opportunity to meet one of my future
neighbors! My sister moved to Newburg just before Sándor bácsi came to
Hungary to visit his home. Sándor is my sister's neighbor! We
talked about Oregon a bit and it was just a little miracle for me. I will
use Hungarian after my mission!

MONDAY (the day of
them all)
I just wanted to share a miracle that happened, once again, at the last
moment. Yesterday, we were feeling down due to some struggling
investigators. We fasted, but it turned out that the best thing for them
was to let them go. We decided to keep going and trust in our prayers and
fast. By a random chain of events, we found ourselves in an unfamiliar
area tracting some new buildings. As it began, we didn't seem to see any
success. We kept going and with a prayer in our hearts, the door was
opened to a part member family who had, just earlier that month, been praying
to find the church again. The mother looked at us with gratitude and love
as her prayers were answered.

It has been a great
transfer, I am just sad it is already gone. We have met and helped so
many people, but there is just more to be had.

Have a great week
everyone and I PROMISE pictures next week. We haven't been able to send
pictures due to our emailing cafe, but I will find a way in my new Szegedi cafe
next week!

Monday, June 3, 2013

This week was yet
another great week. We were able to take the time to really help a number
of people. We were also able to find some great new investigators.
In fact, all of the missionaries here were able to see great miracles, I am just
so happy!

So there are two
stories I want to share this week and the first is about an amazing artist that
we are currently meeting with. He is an AMAZING painter and is able to
make breathtaking pieces that make your jaw drop. He has it all, a
wonderful family, art, money and everything a person here on earth can even
dream of, but he still felt like something was missing.

It was such a
blessing for us to be there and share with him this message that will never
fade or go away. We shared "The Book of Mormon" with him, along
with the miraculous story of the origins thereof. His countenance started
to change and it was a blessing to see the hope in his eyes grow by the
second. He is probably one of the coolest investigators I have had the
opportunity to meet.

My second story is that of a wonderful woman we are meeting
with. She is a wonderful woman we met in our English class here in
Pécs. She quickly took to the wonderful members here and recognized an
uncanny happiness amongst them. Things seemed to be going wonderful and
she quickly accepted our challenge to try the Lord and receive her answers
before her baptismal date of July 20th.

She has been fighting to receive an answer, but felt as though her efforts were
being wasted. We recognized this and challenged her to act by:
1. Reading that night

2. Praying with a specific question before church

3. Searching for
her answer in church

This woman took our
challenge and fought for her answer. Although she still doesn't feel
sure, that day after church she accepted our challenge to pray out loud for the
first time in her life. She was and is working with faith and that is a privilege
for me to witness such a thing.

It was a miracle,
for me, to see myself and especially Elder Bennett truly focus on our
investigators this week. We truly have seen great things this week and we
helped many people.

Our district did
great this week and we are going to have a super delicious dinner of
"rakott krumpli" tonight, by my cooking. It will be great and I
can't wait for another great week of miracles!